Home to people from different ethnicities and religions, Chennai is considered a melting pot of many cultures and one can find a plethora of temples, churches and mosques that bear a mark of Chennai’s rich heritage. Architecture belonging to the colonial times can be found in the port area as well as in other places in Chennai such as the St. Mary’s Church in Fort St. George or the Pachaiyappa’s Hall which is based on the Athenium Temple of Theseus. Mahabalipuram- a neighbouring town of Chennai has ancient temples and rock carvings dating back to the 7th century Pallava kingdom.

Where it stands today

Chennai has a booming tourism industry with an influx of visiting foreign tourists and holds the merit of being one of the most visited cities in India. In fact, Lonely planet has listed Chennai in the top 10 cities to travel to for the year 2015.

The honour bestowed on the city seems totally justified as there has been ground-breaking development in terms of infrastructure and governance. Today the city is taking bolder and bigger steps towards urbanisation and it is truly heartening to see that the skyline is a beautiful convergence of the old with the new and that there’s even-handed balance of modernization and history.

Chennai- The preferred city

Recently ranked 9th in the list of the world’s best cosmopolitan cities, Chennai’s prospects are primed to go a few notches higher. The government authorities are pulling out all the stops to make the growth story bigger and better than ever before. Infrastructure is being given a big boost by introducing progressive services such as the monorail project, added incentives for promotion of industrial growth and the ambitious construction of flyovers in strategic places.

The city is being recognized for its invaluable worth and has featured in the news of late on account of the overall excellence in the standard of living of its citizens. Based on the “Location Ranking Survey” conducted by ECA International, Chennai was rated as having the highest quality of life among other cities in India. It pips ahead of the other three metros and Bangalore. What’s more, Chennai received the second highest rating in India in a worldwide quality of life survey conducted by Mercer in 2007 (New Delhi scored the highest).

The accolades just keep pouring in

Chennai boasts of being a leading commercial and industrial centre besides being home to all major educational, literary and economic centers. The city has long held on to the distinction of being referred to as ‘The Detroit of Asia’ for it’s proliferate automobile industry. The IT/ITES parks are home to some of the most renowned multinational companies of the world.

What’s more, the city boasts of a high number of expats with Chennai having the highest population just after Mumbai and Delhi. With the onslaught of a high number of people from world over, Chennai made way for yet another accolade- the 41st ranking of Chennai in the global top 100 city destinations in the year 2011. Nearly 3,174,500 tourists visited the cultural and heritage sites of Chennai and the nearby towns, contributing more than Rs 20,000 crore to the state economy. In comparison, domestic tourism brought in around Rs 5,500 crore.

The city boasts of a sound, state-of-the-art healthcare system and medical tourists from across the world come to Chennai for their treatments. In fact, medical tourism continues to remain a high grosser with this form of tourism outperforming every other.

Chennai has much variety on offer and it is a matter of pride that the city was placed 2nd, featuring as the best food city in the world by none other than National Geographic (Chennai was the only city from across India to feature in the list). Furthermore, the city features in the “52 places to go around the world” by The New York Times. In 2014’s annual Indian city survey, India Today ranked Chennai as the best city in India.

Through the looking glass

Chennai is the secondary financial hub in the country, after Mumbai and with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $69 billion Chennai is a pivotal financial and commercial hub. It ranks fifth in terms of overall GDP contribution in India. Combined with a strong industrial and IT populace, Chennai is the 31st-largest urban area in the world. Considered as the sixth-largest city in India and the fourth-most populous metropolitan area in the country, Chennai is poised to reach beyond the stars.